NOTES ON GROUSE-DISEASE 1G7 



those animals differ from every other living- creature 

 on this earth. My personal conviction is that the 

 system is wrong - for sheep also, and that, before many 

 years have passed, it will be found as unsound as it is 

 short-sighted. Enjoyment by anticipation entails repay- 

 ment in tribulation, and with interest on the compound 

 scale. " That result follows on the working" of Nature's 

 own laws of equivalents and equilibrium. There are 

 moorlands on the Border which, to my eye, are "eaten" 

 years ahead of the times. But the check will come, and 

 then there will be longer and wearier years to wait while 

 " the times " creep up abreast again. 



A frequent happening - may be described thus : — The 

 burning - of the heather is neglected, or forgotten, till the 

 plant has grown almost too old for burning with safety at all 

 — tall, woody, and shrublike. 1 Heather of that age, when 

 burnt, naturally requires years to recuperate and re-estab- 

 lish itself on a sound, vigorous basis. But no such chance 

 is given it. The burnt ground is at once stocked with the 

 close-cropping black-faces — because they are capable of 

 living upon nothing — with the result already indicated. 

 Cases such as these convey to outside observers an idea of 

 carelessness and laxity that seems radically wrong. In 

 the more precise forms of industry, "slovenliness" would 

 be the only adequate epithet. Heather is a plant of high 

 economic value, and that fact needs fuller recognition. 



There is no fault, inherent or implied, in the black-faced 

 sheep. On the contrary, that breed has its own special 

 qualities which, used with discretion, have their value. 

 For example, when crossed with Border Leicesters, the 

 mutton is of the best ; and the very character named — 



1 There are, of course, years of snow and heavy rainfall which render 

 heather-burning impossible at its proper season. 



